1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to fiber optic splice equipment, and more particularly, to fiber optic splice equipment adapted to provide convenient slack storage for the optical fibers.
2. Description of Related Art
Fiber optic data and communication systems employ splice trays and splice assemblies at various points along a distribution network. For example, a splice assembly may be used to connect drop cables to an express cable. The drop cables may lead to individual businesses or dwellings. The splice assembly often has a frame with an end cap on one or both ends to define a splice closure. The frame has provisions for receiving splice trays and storing slack fiber optic cable. The express cable typically has a jacket surrounding a number of buffer or express tubes. Each express tube typically has a plurality of optical fibers, usually from six to about twelve. The jacket of the cable will be stripped off and sealed around an aperture in the end cap of the splice closure. Some of the tubes will be cut and extend between the end cap and splice trays attached to the frame. Other express tubes may remain uncut and will pass in a loop around the frame and back out the end cap.
The splice trays typically have splice organizers comprising one or more splice holders for retaining splices that connect individual optical fibers, such as fibers from the express tubes, to drop cable fibers. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art splice tray 10 comprising a splice organizer 12 of multiple splice holders 14. The splice holders 14 are adapted to selectively receive a splice 16 that optically connects a first optical fiber 20 and a second optical fiber 22. The splice 16 may be formed by any conventional splice technique, such as mechanical splicing or fusion splicing. In order to splice and perform other related manipulation of the optical fibers, optical fiber slack is typically readily available, for example, to allow the fibers to be properly positioned for splicing and/or to position the splice 16 in the splice holder 14 without bending any portion of the optical fiber beyond the minimum bend radius of the optical fiber (which may result in performance degradation and/or failure of the optical fiber). Conventional splice trays, such as the splice tray 10 of FIG. 1, typically provide slack storage within the perimeter 24 of the splice tray in which the optical fibers are wound a number of times against the inner surface of the side wall and/or possibly against a retainer device 26, such as the overhanging lip that projects inwardly from the side walls of the splice tray. Such splice trays define a certain amount of area to provide the desired slack storage with the required bend radius for the optical fibers. In addition, the slack storage is a collection of all the optical fibers associated with the splice tray 10, thus complicating a technician's task of selecting one or more specific optical fibers from the collection for subsequent manipulation, such as splicing.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art splice assembly 30 including a splice tray 10 similar to the one described above with respect to FIG. 1. The splice assembly 30 comprises a frame to which the splice tray 10 is joined. The frame defines a perimeter 32 along with retainer devices 34 to provide slack storage for the optical fibers 36 and 38 associated with the splice tray 10. The optical fibers 36 and 38 may be jacketed optical fibers, buffered optical fibers, and/or bare optical fibers and may comprise any number of optical fibers (optical fibers 36 and 38 are representative only). The optical fibers 36 and 38 are wound about the frame such that the retainer devices defined along the perimeter generally keep the optical fibers within the inner perimeter of the splice assembly 30. The optical fibers 36 and 38 encircle the splice tray 10 thus requiring the splice assembly to define a size larger than the splice tray.
Therefore, a need exists for splice trays and/or splice assemblies that define a generally smaller area for at least the reasons of reduced material costs, easier hardware handling, and/or improved aesthetics. In addition, there exists a need for splice trays and/or splice assemblies that afford convenient access to one or more optical fibers to facilitate selective manipulation by a technician.